Try Telecommuting

Time wasted every day commuting adds up fast. A one-hour commute to work every day calculates to 250 hours every year. If you think you don't have "enough time in a day"- try adding up all that wasted time commuting.

One solution is to telecommute - work somewhere other than the traditional office. Many people telecommute just to catch up on reading, special assignments or specific tasks that can be completed at home.

The benefits of doing this can be tremendous:

• More flexible hours
• Less distractions
• Lower commuting costs
• Saved time and money
• No wasted time commuting

Telecommuting increases

Telecommuting Projections:  Telecommuting moves information rather than people by using telecommunications technology to partially or completely replace the commute to and from work.
As a work strategy, telecommuting can:

• Increase productivity
• Reduce stress on the employee
• Decrease corporate costs
• Ease both congestion and air pollution

By 2010, 21 percent of companies will have their employees working remotely up to half the time.  Companies will lease less space, (office space often represents the second-largest cost for most companies, so less office space means better financial performance), according to a report from CoreNet, an Atlanta-based association of commercial real estate executives.

CoreNet's report, Corporate Real Estate 2010:  Enabling Work in a Networked World continues: "You won't see the Dilbertville cubicles sitting half empty by 2010,  The ability to check email and voice mail from multiple locations will become more important than individual office space."

Telework Trendlines 2006:  A report by WorldatWork based on data collected by The Dieringer Research Group

Key findings:

• Employers Are Expanding Teleworking Opportunities Number of "At Least Once Per Year"
• Teleworkers Remains Steady
• Frequency of Teleworking is Growing
• Broadband Use Rises Sharply for Home-Based Teleworkers
• Teleworkers Are Far More Prevalent Users of Wireless
• Workers Increasingly Working from Anywhere

Nationwide, the number of Americans telecommuting "almost every day" grew 20 percent, from 12.2 million in 2005 to 14.7 million in 2006, according to the Telwork Advisory Group for WorldatWork.

And a national survey conducted by the Dieringer Research Group from August 15 – September 1, 2005 indicated a 30% increase in employee telecommuters between 2004 and 2005.

The survey also found that, out of 135.4 million American workers , a great many worked at home or from other places outside of their employer’ s office: • 45.1 million worked from home , • 24.3 million people worked at client’ s or customer’ s place of business , • 20.6 million in their car , • 16.3 million while on vacation, • 15.1 million at a park or outdoor location, and • 7.8 million while on a train or air plane.

Overall, the survey indicated that 26.1 million people work ed from home at least one day a month, and 22.2 million at least once a week. The study was conducted for ITAC, the Telework Advisory Group for WorldatWork.

About 24 million Americans worked from home during at least one business day a month in 2004, up from 11.6 million in 1997, according to ITAC, an association that promotes alternative work locations.  Telecommuting is supposed to replace the traditional office, reduce employee commutes and the amount of space companies lease. But telecommuters don't stay away from the office completely. They prefer part-time arrangements, such as working from home about three days a week and driving to the office the other two.   This allows them to work from home, relaxed and more focused, but still socialize.  This pattern is supported in a study by University of California, Davis, researcher Patricia Mokhtarian.

Only 13 percent of telecommuters work from home three days a week or more, Mokhtarian has found. Forty-eight percent telecommute an average of less than one day a week.  People enjoy the social and professional interaction at the workplace, and a lot of employees feel they are still expected to be around.

In the 1970s, as many as 40 percent of American workers were expected to no longer commute to traditional offices by 2000. Some believed telecommuting would cause a population dispersion away from cluttered urban areas.

The more common experience today is that workers have the option of telecommuting, and with employees living further from their worksite, with commutes of an hour and more, it is a tool for employee retention, when an hour-long commute every day is too much.  At Hewlett Packard, telecommuting is an employee recruitment and retention tool since the 1990s, when the technology of computer messaging and phone systems that ring in both office and home became available. Now, about 70 percent of HP's work force telecommutes, according to spokeswoman Brigida Bergkamp.

Because HP's Palo Alto office needs less office space, an entire floor is converted to "free address" cubicles, where telecommuters who come into the office rotate among desks and use mobile storage units to move their files from one workspace to another.

Many companies that allow telecommuting set limits. At Sacramento's Paratransit Inc., which provides transportation for elderly and disabled people, Chief Financial Officer Steve Robinson-Burmester instructs his employees to keep telecommuting logs, where they list how they spend the one day a week they're permitted to work from home.

Rancho Cordova-based Vision Service Plan allows strong-performing employees to work from home, but not managers.

Even some of the biggest telecommuting proponents urge precautions. AT&T's telework director, Joseph Roitz, said his company does not view working from home as a perk. Instead, AT&T sees telecommuting as a way to boost efficiency, he said.  He recommends setting clear limits on how many hours people work from home, and telecommuting is not to be a substitute for child care.

Managers, meanwhile, are urged to adopt clear methods for measuring employees' results. It helps to delegate assignments fairly among teleworkers and those who work in the office, Roitz said. And it's important to keep both telecommuters and office workers in the communications loop.

Roitz predicts that as more people telecommute, the communications channels will shift, and then people at offices will all want to work at home.  He said about one-third of AT&T's salaried employees telecommute full time. They are, however, urged to meet face-to-face with their managers at least twice a year.

For more information, call the Sacramento Transportation Management Association  (916) 737-1513  or E-mail Us

Please note the TMA's new mailing address: P O Box 19520 Sacramento, CA  95819-0520
               
Last modified: 04/21/08    Copyright© 2008